Slideshare uses cookies to improve functionality and performance, and to provide you with relevant advertising. If you continue browsing the site, you agree to the use of cookies on this website. See our User Agreement and Privacy Policy.

Slideshare uses cookies to improve functionality and performance, and to provide you with relevant advertising. If you continue browsing the site, you agree to the use of cookies on this website. See our Privacy Policy and User Agreement for details.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

1.
Steve Jobs dies: Apple chief created personal computer, iPad, iPod, iPhone Steve Jobs, the mastermind behind Apples iPhone, iPad, iPod, iMac and iTunes, has died, Apple said. Jobs was 56. ABC News – 3 hrs ago Jeff Chiu, File - FILE - In this Jan. 15, 2008, file photo, Apple CEO Steve Jobs holds up the new MacBook Air after giving the keynote address at the Apple MacWorld Conference in San Francisco. Apple on Wednesday, …more Steve Jobs, the mastermind behind Apples iPhone, iPad, iPod, iMac and iTunes, has died, Apple said. Jobs was 56. "We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today," read a statement by Apples board of directors. "Steves brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve. His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out

2.
to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts."The homepage of Apples website this evening switched to a full-page imageof Jobs with the text, "Steve Jobs 1955-2011."Clicking on the image revealed the additional text: "Apple has lost avisionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing humanbeing. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work withSteve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind acompany that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be thefoundation of Apple."Jobs co-founded Apple Computer in 1976 and, with his childhoodfriend Steve Wozniak, marketed what was considered the worlds firstpersonal computer, the Apple II.Shortly after learning of Jobs death, Wozniak told ABC News, "Im shockedand disturbed."Industry watchers called him a master innovator -- perhaps on a par withThomas Edison -- changing the worlds of computing, recorded music andcommunications.In 2004, he beat back an unusual form of pancreatic cancer, and in 2009 hewas forced to get a liver transplant. After several years of failing health, Jobsannounced on Aug. 24, 2011 that he was stepping down as Apples chiefexecutive."I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meetmy duties and expectations as Apples CEO, I would be the first to let youknow," Jobs wrote in his letter of resignation. "Unfortunately, that day hascome."One of the worlds most famous CEOs, Jobs remained stubbornly privateabout his personal life, refusing interviews and shielding his wife and theirchildren from public view.

3.
"Hes never been a media person," said industry analyst Tim Bajarin,president of Creative Strategies, after Jobs resigned. "Hes grantedinterviews in the context of product launches, when it benefits Apple, butyou never see him talk about himself."The highlights of Jobss career trajectory are well-known: a prodigy whodropped out of Reed College in Oregon and, at 21, started Apple withWozniak in his parents garage. He was a multimillionaire by 25, appearedon the cover of Time magazine at 26, and was ousted at Apple at age 30, in1984.In the years that followed, he went into other businesses, founding NeXTcomputers and, in 1986, buying the computer graphics arm of Lucasfilm,Ltd., which became Pixar Animation Studios.He was described as an exacting and sometimes fearsome leader, orderingup and rejecting multiple versions of new products until the final version wasjust right. He said the design and aesthetics of a device were as importantas the hardware and software inside.In 1996, Apple, which had struggled without Jobs, brought him back bybuying NeXT. He became CEO in 1997 and put the company on aremarkable upward path.By 2001 the commercial music industry was on its knees because digitalrecordings, copied and shared online for free, made it unnecessary formillions of people to buy compact discs.Jobs took advantage with the iPod -- essentially a pocket-sized computerhard drive with elegantly simple controls and a set of white earbuds so thatone could listen to the hours of music one saved on it. He set up the iTunesonline music store, and persuaded major recording labels to sell songs for 99

4.
cents each. No longer did people have to go out and buy a CD if they likedone song from it. They bought a digital file and stored it in their iPod.In 2007, he transformed the cell phone. Apples iPhone, with its iconic touchscreen, was a handheld computer, music player, messaging device, digitalwallet and -- almost incidentally -- cell phone. Major competitors, such asBlackBerry, Nokia and Motorola, struggled after it appeared.By 2010, Apples new iPad began to cannibalize its original business, thepersonal computer. The iPad was a sleek tablet computer with a touchscreen and almost no physical buttons. It could be used for almost anythingsoftware designers could conceive, from watching movies to taking picturesto leafing through a virtual book.Personal lifeJobs kept a close cadre of friends, Bajarin said, including John Lasseter ofPixar and Larry Ellison of Oracle, but beyond that, shared very little of hispersonal life with anyone.But that personal life -- he was given up at birth for adoption, had anillegitimate child, was romantically linked with movie stars -- was full ofintrigue for his fan base and Apple consumers.Jobs and his wife, Laurene Powell, were married in a small ceremony inYosemite National Park in 1991, lived in Woodside, Calif., and had threechildren: Reed Paul, Erin Sienna and Eve.He admitted that when he was 23, he had a child out of wedlock with hishigh school girlfriend, Chris Ann Brennan. Their daughter, Lisa Brennan Jobs,was born in 1978.He had a biological sister, Mona Simpson, the author of such well-known

5.
books as "Anywhere But Here." But he did not meet Simpson until they wereadults and he was seeking out his birth parents. Simpson later wrote a bookbased on their relationship. She called it "A Regular Guy."Fortune magazine reported that Jobs denied paternity of Lisa for years, atone point swearing in a court document that he was infertile and could nothave children. According to the report, Chris Ann Brennan collected welfarefor a time to support the child until Jobs later acknowledged Lisa as hisdaughter.There were other personal details that emerged over the years, as well.At Reed, Jobs became romantically involved with the singer Joan Baez,according to Elizabeth Holmes, a friend and classmate. In "The SecondComing of Steve Jobs," Holmes tells biographer Alan Deutschman that Jobsbroke up with his serious girlfriend to "begin an affair with the charismaticsinger-activist." Holmes confirmed the details to ABC News.Jobs health and Apples healthEnigmatic and charismatic, Jobs said little about himself. But then his bodybegan to fail him.In 2004, he was forced to say publicly he had a rare form of pancreaticcancer. In 2009, it was revealed that he had quietly gone to a Memphishospital for a liver transplant.He took three medical leaves from Apple. He did not share details.In 2009, sources said, members of Apples board of directors had topersuade him to disclose more about his health as "a fiduciary issue,"interwoven with the health of the company.He was listed in March as 109th on the Forbes list of the worlds billionaires,with a net worth of about $8.3 billion. After selling Pixar animation studios to

6.
The Walt Disney Company in 2006, he became a Disney board member andthe companys largest shareholder. Disney is the parent company of ABCNews.Analysts said Apple performed well during Jobs absence, partly because hewas available for big decisions and partly because his chief lieutenant, TimCook, was the hands-on manager even when Jobs was there.The company has a history of bouncing back. In January 2009, after heannounced his second medical leave, Apple stock dropped to $78.20 pershare. But it quickly recovered and became one of the most successfulstocks on Wall Street. On one day in the summer of 2011, with the stockhitting the $400 level, Apple briefly passed ExxonMobil as the worlds mostvaluable company.